The release is free, of course—but if you can, please show your appreciation by making a donation to the legal fund of those arrested in last month’s building occupation in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. To do so, go to the defendant support site and donate to the arrestees’ legal fund; further inquiries can be addressed to ‘defendoccupychapelhillarrestees@riseup.net’.

One of these songs appeared in our video coverage of the aforementioned building occupation. Since this is the digital age, we can already offer a review of the release, courtesy of Seattle’s excellent Tides of Flame [PDF]:

“Underground Reverie’s debut album is throbbing, haunting, and completely amazing. Samples from helicopters, owlish flutes, various films (including Network), and eerie old songs flesh out a skeleton of delicate electronic beats. The music is as much about the horrors of civilization as it is about the raw beauty of struggle. In the liner notes, UR reflects on anarchist praxis and encourages us to keep fighting.”

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4 thoughts on “Underground Reverie Benefit Release”

“The authorities understand themselves to be engaged in social war, perhaps more clearly than most insurrectionists do. They do not simply attack our bodies with batons, pepper spray, and imprisonment; they also set out to attack our relationships and social connections. It is significantly more cost-effective for them to intimidate, isolate, or discredit radicals than to imprison or kill them. In confrontations, we should recognize this intimidation and isolation as their top priority, and defend our relationships and our connections to others accordingly. They can beat or jail us as individuals without winning the social conflict-the question is whether our values and tactics take hold.”
-“Say You Want an Insurrection,” Rolling Thunder #8

1. Disorder on the doorstep

It took the actions of only a handful of anarchists in our city to draw us out of skeptical isolation, and into the streets again. We watched impressively disruptive banner drops, daring attacks in broad daylight, and nightly roving street conflicts, realizing that these events were not simply actions, but open letters as well, addressed to the others like us. When seen as their own ends, these kind of activities can feel inconsequential at times, but we find that what is done is less important than how. What made those attacks and counterattacks remarkable was not their material gains, but the relevancy and timing with which they were executed. By retaining the initiative, anarchists were able to build momentum and morale, and while the state fumbled for containment, there were more of us who found it contagious.

2. Far behind my enemy’s lines

As anarchists within society, we find ourselves continually in conflict with our surroundings, and with no friendly territory to harbor us, one of our greatest challenges is to reclaim and hold the circumstances under which our ideas can not only circulate, but exchange, ferment, and grow. If our context is such that we cannot yet withstand sieges against occupied buildings and defend them successfully with direct force, an examination of our ends and means still leaves us with opportunities. If we see the seizing of material spaces as a fight for social territory, then the permanence of occupation becomes unimportant, freeing us to act frequently and unpredictably, while risking much less in exchange for our returns. An ongoing campaign of taking and relinquishing temporary spaces allows for the building and strengthening of our relationships within anarchist zones of conflict, which is terrain not as easily reclaimed by SWAT teams. As our enemies feel the harassment of our collaborations and escalations, our victories are the ground we gain towards a context where we stop giving our buildings back.

3. Restless fingers caressing triggers

Raised within and surrounded by a society based on alienation, we find that keeping the small amount of hard-won social terrain that we have taken as anarchists, is another battle in itself. Whenever the momentum of conflict is broken, depression and stagnation are often close behind. This can contribute to a sense of transience within our informal networks, as allies burn-out, drop-out, or move away. If this impulse is engaged in another way, however, our access to mobility can become a strength. In the present context, we have access to both the mobility of bodies and of information, each of which can be used to build solidarity and broaden our networks to include those far away. By spending our time in different situations, with the specific intent of bringing back new skills, projects, and energy to our battlefields at home, the relationships and territories we have already fought to create can be defended and sustained. By intensifying our relationships instead of withdrawing from them, we are able to spread ideas, tactics, and support across daunting barriers, and maintain the continuity of war.

4. May the disaffected find each other

We are a dispersed group of people, scattered in all places and predominantly isolated. The authorities would like nothing better than to see us remain disconnected and unlikely to find or collaborate with allies. The forces of domination are practiced at keeping small groups of radicals contained, quarantining them like contagious patients, for fear that their disorder might infect a larger social base. Although the police attempt to suppress us, their blundering efforts only help us to spread. We are most dangerous when we proliferate, when our numbers are concentrated and affinities have been formed. We are most dangerous when we freely share skills and develop the ability to provide for our own needs. We are most dangerous when we adapt according to circumstance, instead of being reduced to routine. We are most dangerous when we can communicate beyond our milieus and form bonds that no baton can break.